Philomath Fire and Rescue responds to many types of emergencies throughout the year, but their most frequent call isn’t fighting fires or rushing to car accidents. Instead, firefighters spend much of their time helping elderly and disabled residents who have fallen and can’t get back up.
“It is the No. 1 call type that we visit,” Fire Chief Chancy Ferguson said. “It’s been consistent over the years of being a very high call type.”
Lift assists have become even more common since the COVID-19 pandemic, Ferguson explained, as resources for follow-up care have diminished. The calls typically involve elderly residents who have fallen at home and need help getting back to a bed, chair, or simply standing upright.
What might seem like a simple task often reveals itself as something more complex. Ferguson said he and his team approach each call as professional problem solvers, assessing whether the person needs medical attention and connecting them with appropriate resources.
“As the fire department, as EMTs, it’s not just treat the patient and send them to the hospital,” he said. “There are often many different avenues that we will chase down. It could be calling families or the patient’s primary care physician and working through that.”
The department serves as “a clearinghouse” for determining the best way to help each patient, sometimes coordinating with Benton County Health to find additional resources.
Office Administrator Ashley Scott noted that what begins as a lift assist can quickly become a medical emergency.
“Sometimes when you get there, it ends up being a medical incident and not just let’s move you to your chair,” she said.
Ferguson emphasized the serious health risks that can develop when elderly or disabled individuals remain on the floor for extended periods.
“Somebody that is an elderly patient or disabled, they can become hypothermic very, very quickly on the floor and those can become medical incidents very, very quickly,” he said.
Many patients end up being transported to the hospital for injuries like hip fractures or infections they may not have initially recognized. Ferguson pointed out that for patients over 80, hip fractures carry a mortality rate of over 90%.
Most lift assist calls involve elderly patients who lack nearby family support or whose relatives live far away. The situations frequently occur during times when regular care isn’t available — nights, weekends or when home care workers aren’t present.
“Many of those patients that have been repeat just don’t have any other means of seeking help,” Ferguson said.
Interestingly, Oregon law doesn’t actually require fire departments to respond to lift assists.
“We have no obligation to do lift assists — that is a weird thing in Oregon law,” Ferguson explained.
The service falls into a gap where no other agency has clear responsibility, so fire departments step in as a community service.
The Philomath crew often addresses underlying safety issues during their visits. Ferguson recalled occasions when firefighters loaded patients’ homes with firewood after ice-related falls, or provided hospital-grade traction socks to prevent slipping. Crews also check for working smoke detectors while they’re in homes.
Despite their frequency, lift assists typically take only 10 to 15 minutes and are classified as non-emergent calls. Ferguson explained that the department can manage the calls without compromising emergency response capabilities.
“Let’s say a chest pain call came in during that — we’d either lift the patient and get them to where they need to be and go to that call and/or may even divert from the lift assist,” he said.
The department gets creative with staffing when needed, sometimes calling on Philomath Police or Corvallis ambulance services for additional help when regular crews are handling other emergencies.
The financial impact of lift assists is minimal — mainly just fuel costs to drive to the location, since few supplies are typically needed. But Ferguson sees these calls as fundamental to the department’s mission.
“You have to understand for a firefighter to do this job, for our culture to be what it is, it’s service beyond everything else,” he said. “Everybody wants to be there to help somebody and if it’s as simple as lifting somebody up, it’s making their day better.”
Ferguson acknowledged that the calls can sometimes be frustrating, but emphasized their importance to both the community and his firefighters’ sense of purpose.
“If we don’t do it, who else would – really, for a lot of these people?” he asked.
My husband needed many lift assists in the last few years of his life and we were always so grateful to see the fire truck coming up the driveway. The EMT’s were very skilled, figuring out how to get my husband up. Many thanks to them all.